Don't ask quest

n't sounded like the poised heiress who had commissioned her portrait two weeks earlier. This voice was frightened,almo

-breathless, urgent, the kind of panick

tell Damon I had alway

nd worry,and then when it was time to close, she packed up her rolled canvas into her knapsack a

medicine.Her mornings usually began with two hours behind a counter pulling lattes and her nights ended with borrowed brushes and a cramped studio that smelled like linseed and laundry detergent. She could li

silver. The portrait they had both been working on over the past couple of weeks sat tucked behind the passenger seat, shifting with every turn as the ocean let out a distant hiss. Lightning shot out in the distance as the road n

shouldn't-headlights pooled on the wet road, illuminating Amara's pale figure beside her car. She wasn't

ed the handbrake, and stepped into the storm. The cold rain soaked through her ja

e wide, rimmed in mascara that had bled down her cheeks.

ked about a couple of things; Damon, money and how good her life w

ho

e wind caught the edge of Amara's s

as another engine roared somewhere behind th

t him contro

ts washed over them, blinding, sound swelling until it filled everything-then came a sickeni

ut the world

. She had just gotten into what happened to be the most traumatic accident she's been in. The only accident she's been in and the first thing they could do was restrain her. A police officer stood over her. He looked young and somewhat pale as if he had been made to watch

d young lady?" the officer as

oice, it came out cracked

e, the way the nurse's face had turned almost eagerly, as if a story was a

s the first headline had already formed in the

LVED IN BILLIONAIRE

ver the edge of the estate repeated but the majority of the photos caught i

e placed a hand on the form before him and watched her like he w

she said fin

less important than the paperwork. Someone photographed her bandaged wrists, another

ain droplets beaded off his shoulders but he appeared unfazed as he approached her slowly but confidently.She had only met Damon Hale through pictur

owan,"

oth to the cliff, but her throat felt like it was closing in. She suddenly felt lik

ied to

before anyone could ask a question."Because whe

h that trembled. "I

nesses say she met you in secret, that you were

guing-she aske

pect me to

to meet her. She said she'd

asked,not unkindly, but with a cruelty that made her stom

ng to do with this.. If for any

said. "My company- all the years of work could be frozen. Investors could pull ou

t one big horrid nightmare.She wanted to scream that they were wrong, tha

the dark suits, Lena saw a tableau: flashbulbs like distant lightning, a chorus of voi

ek brown envelope as if it hurt him to touch the papers. He set them on

, "is going to matter a grea